FATHERLAND

Directed by

Paweł Pawlikowski

Poland, Germany, Italy, France 2026 82 MIN

Synopsis

In the summer of 1949, Nobel Prize-winning writer Thomas Mann returns to Germany for the first time since fleeing the country sixteen years earlier. Accompanied by his daughter Erika, an actress, writer, and committed political activist, he travels in a black Buick from American-controlled Frankfurt to Soviet-controlled Weimar. Crossing a devastated nation increasingly divided by the Cold War, father and daughter encounter the physical and moral ruins left by Nazism and war. Their journey also exposes tensions within their own family, forcing Thomas to confront questions of belonging, guilt, exile, and responsibility toward a homeland whose history he can neither escape nor fully embrace.

Gallery

Paweł Pawlikowski

Paweł Pawlikowski is a Polish-British director and screenwriter, born in Warsaw in 1957. He began his career making documentaries for British television before moving into fiction with films including Last Resort (2000) and My Summer of Love (2004). His film Ida (2013) won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, while Cold War (2018) earned him the Best Director Award at Cannes and an Academy Award nomination for directing. Fatherland premiered in Competition at Cannes in 2026, where Pawlikowski again received the Best Director Award. His films are known for their austere visual style and explorations of identity, memory, history, love, and displacement.

Credits

Director: Paweł Pawlikowski
Screenplay: Paweł Pawlikowski, Henk Handloegten
Cinematography: Łukasz Żal
Editing: Paweł Pawlikowski, Piotr Wójcik
Music: Marcin Masecki
Sound Design: Lars Ginzel, Tarn Willers
Cast: Sandra Hüller, Hanns Zischler, August Diehl, Devid Striesow, Anna Madeley
Producers: Mario Gianani, Lorenzo Mieli, Ewa Puszczyńska, Jeanne Tremsal, Edward Berger, Dimitri Rassam, Lorenzo Gangarossa (MUBI, Our Films, Extreme Emotions, Nine Hours, Chapter2, Circle One)